User for Principals and Delegates€¦ · Paraeducator Staffing Grid link: A Brief Tour of the Para Grid System The first time you or your delegate accesses the Para Grid system,

Office of the Chief Technology Officer

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Online Paraeducator Staffing Grid (OPSG)

User Guide for Principals and Delegates

Version 1.1

February 21, 2017


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Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 3

A Brief Tour of the Para Grid System ..................................................................................................................... 3

Changing a Staff Member’s Assigned Hours .......................................................................................................... 9

Adding Temporary Part‐Time Hours for a Staff Member.................................................................................... 11

Recommending Involuntary Transfer of a Staff Member ................................................................................... 12

Saving Your Para Grid Prior to Submission .......................................................................................................... 13

Submitting Your Para Grid to the Dept. of Certification and Staffing (DCS) ...................................................... 15

What Happens after Your School’s Para Grid has been Submitted? .................................................................. 17

Tips for using the Para Grid System ..................................................................................................................... 19

How to see more of your Para Grid on your screen ........................................................................................ 19

How to export your grid to an Excel worksheet .............................................................................................. 20

Can more than one person work on the Para Grid for a school? ................................................................... 20

Can I refresh my Para Grid if I want to discard my changes and start over again?........................................ 21


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Introduction The new Online Paraeducator Staffing Grid system, which we will refer to as the “Para Grid system”, is an online, interactive tool that replaces the current MCPS Form 425‐9a, Paraeducator Staffing Form, to make changes to your school’s paraeducator hours and/or indicate involuntary transfers of paraeducators. To access the Para Grid system, go to the same myMCPS webpage that you use to get to SAE and click on the Online Paraeducator Staffing Grid link:

A Brief Tour of the Para Grid System The first time you or your delegate accesses the Para Grid system, you will see a screen like the one below. If you would like to see a bar chart that displays your school’s paraeducator job codes that currently have variances between hours assigned and authorized hours, click on the View Variance Chart link:

Click this link to

access Para Grid

system

Click this link to

see variance chart


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After you click on the View Variance Chart link, here is an example of what you would see if you have any

paraeducator job codes with variances. If your school does not have any variances, the chart will not display:

When you are ready to begin working on a new Para Grid for eventual submission to the Department of

Certification and Staffing (DCS), click on the blue plus icon in the Start New Form box that you will be

working on:

Click this blue plus icon to

work on your current

year’s (FY17)

paraeducator staffing

Click this blue plus icon to

work on your next year’s

(FY18) paraeducator

staffing


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After you click on the blue plus icon, the Para Grid for your school will be displayed:

The left pane of the screen is a navigation bar and it also shows a Form History area that shows on which

version you are currently working. The first time you work in the Para Grid system, you will be working on

Version 1:

This arrow icon shows

you the version of your

school’s Para Grid on

which you are currently

working.


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If you have submitted previous versions of your school’s Para Grid, the Form History section will show the

version history. You can view any previous version by clicking on the version number:

When you access your school’s Para Grid, it will already be populated with the staff members at your school

who have paraeducator, lunch hour aide, and IDA hours assigned. The staff members will be displayed in

seniority order (by hire date), with the most senior staff members at the top. It will also display each staff

member’s hire date, race, gender, and highly‐qualified status (real employee names and ID numbers are being

masked in this training document):

This is where you can

see version history

and you can view a

previous version by

clicking on it.

Staff members are

listed in seniority

order


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If your school has temporary part‐time staff assigned temporary lunch hour aide (T6490) or temporary

itinerant special education paraeducator (T6450) hours, those temporary staff members will be displayed

toward the bottom of your grid, after the permanent staff member with the least seniority. The temporary

part‐time staff will have “(TPT)” in front of their names:

Your school’s Para Grid will also show the hours currently assigned for all permanent staff in the various job

codes listed on the grid, including a breakdown of the special education paraeducators (6550) by program:

At the right‐side of the grid, there are columns that calculate the “Total Para” hours (paraeducator, lunch hour

aide, and IDA hours), total “Other” hours (non‐paraeducator hours), and “Total Hours” for each employee in

the grid:

The “(TPT)” before

staff member’s name

indicates temporary

part‐time.


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At the bottom of the grid, there are three rows that calculate for each job code and program area the “Total

Hours Assigned”, the “Allocation In Hours”, and the “Variance + Or –“:

If the Hours Assigned

are less than the

Allocated Hours, the

Variance is positive

and shows in GREEN

If the Hours Assigned

are more than the

Allocated Hours, the

Variance is negative

and shows in RED


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Changing a Staff Member’s Assigned Hours If you will be changing the assigned hours for any of the staff members in your school’s Para Grid, you must

first indicate the reason for making the change before the grid will permit you to change the hours. Click in the

Change Code column for the staff member whose hours you will be changing and a pop‐up window will

prompt you to indicate the reason for the change:

After you click on the appropriate Change Code, the letter for that change code will be displayed in the Change

Code column cell for that employee:

First, click in the Change

Code cell for the staff

member whose hours

you are changing Second, click on

the reason for

changing the staff

member’s hours

The Change Code

letter you selected

displays here


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Now that the Change Code letter is displaying, you can modify the staff member’s hours. For example, if you

wanted to give the first employe listed in your grid one hour of Lunch Hour Aide (6490) work that he/she did

not previously have, you would click in the blank cell and type in “1.00”. Notice that the cell will turn a light

green color to indicate that you have made a change to that cell:

The Para Grid will not permit you to enter more than 7 hours into a cell. In addition, the Para Grid will not

permit you to enter a number into a cell that will give the staff member more than 7 Total Para Hours or more

than 8 Total Hours. If the number you are entering trips any of these limits, you will see either of these

messages:

If you are working in the current year Para Grid, after entering a change of hours, click in the Effective Change

Date cell and use the pop‐up calendar to select the date on which the change should become effective:

Click in the cell that

you want to change

the hours and type

in the number

Click in the cell to bring

up the calendar and

select the proposed

effective date of the

changed hours


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Adding Temporary Part‐Time Hours for a Staff Member If you have temporary part‐time staff members displayed in your grid, you will notice that their assigned hours

are not populated in the Para Grid when you access it. This is because temporary hours (assigned and

allocated) are not maintained in the systems from which Para Grid gets the hours information. You may use

the Para Grid’s functionality to enter the hours into the grid, using the same method described in the previous

section on how to change hours for a staff member. For example, in the screen shot below, if you know that

Employee Number 20 has 1 hour of TPT Lunch Hour Aide (T6490) work, you would click on the Change Code

for that staff member, select “T – Temp Part‐Time”, and then enter “1.00” in the T6490 cell for that staff

member:

You can repeat this process for each staff member in your school who has (or will have) temporary part‐time

hours.

Click in the cell to

select the change code

“T – Temp Part‐Time”

Then enter the

number of temp

hours


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Recommending Involuntary Transfer of a Staff Member If you need to indicate in your Para Grid a staff member you are recommedning for involuntary transfer, then you should click in the Involuntary Transfer checkbox in the row containing that staff member:

Note: If the staff member you recommend for involuntary transfer has more seniority than another staff member, you will need to provide the rationale for the recommendation in the box at the bottom of the Para Grid:

In order to “zero‐out” the assigned hours for the staff member you are recommending for involuntary transfer, remember to select a Change Code so that you can remove the hours for that staff member:

Click here to indicate if a

staff member is being

recommended for

involuntary transfer

Enter your rationale for

recommending hours changes or

involuntary transfer of a more

senior staff member

When recommending the

least senior staff member

for involuntary transfer, you

would select this Change

Code


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Saving Your Para Grid Prior to Submission If you are working on your Para Grid and need to stop working on it to attend to other matters, you can save the changes you have made and resume working on it at a later time. When you are ready to save your Para Grid, click on Save in the navigation bar on the left of the screen:

Another option for saving your Para Grid is to click on the red “button” icon that always sits in the bottom right corner of your screen, and then click the Save icon:

After you have saved your Para Grid, you can exit the Para Grid System by clicking on Exit in the left‐side navigation bar:

First, click on

this button

Then, click on

this Save icon


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Upon accessing the Para Grid System again, the grid that you saved will be displayed as the Active version of your grid, with the choice to Edit or View it. If you plan to make any changes or if you will be submitting your Para Grid to DCS, then click on the Edit icon. If you simply want to view your Para Grid, click on the View icon:

Click Edit if you plan

to make changes and

to submit your Para

Grid

Click View to just

review your Para Grid


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Submitting Your Para Grid to the Dept. of Certification and Staffing (DCS) When you have finished working on your Para Grid and are ready to submit it to the Department of Certification and Staffing (DCS) for review, there are two options in the system for submitting your grid. The first option is to click on Submit in the navigation bar on the left of the screen:

The second option is to click on the “button” icon at the bottom right corner of your screen and then click on the Submit icon:

After you click on Submit, either in the navigation bar or from the button icon’s choices, you will see a pop‐up window that prompts you to confirm that you wish to submit your grid. If you do want to submit it, click on the Submit button:

First, click on

this button

Then, click on

this Submit

icon

Click this button to

confirm you wish to

submit your grid


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After you have submitted your grid, you will see a confirmation message at the top of your grid indicating the date and time of the submission, and the MCPS username of the person who submitted the grid. In addition, the navigation bar’s Form History will show that the version you were working on is now in a “Submitted” status:

Upon submission of your Para Grid, an email will be sent to DCS indicating that your school’s grid has been submitted and is ready for review. In addition, a copy of the email will be sent to the principal of the school and the principal’s delegates, if he/she has identified delegates in the SAE system:

NOTE: Once a grid has been submitted, it cannot be edited by anyone – it can only be viewed.

Message confirming

date, time, and who

submitted the grid

Shows status of

current version as

“Submitted”


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What Happens after Your School’s Para Grid has been Submitted? When a DCS staff member reviews your submitted Para Grid, he/she will make a decision to either “Accept” or “Return” the Para Grid. If the decision is to accept the grid, an email will be sent back to the principal and delegates indicating the grid has been accepted:

If the DCS staff member’s decision is to return the grid, the email will indicate that the grid has been returned with a note explaining the issue that needs to be resolved:

When you come back into the Para Grid system, your school’s dashboard will show you all of your school’s

previous submissions along with the status of those submissions. If you would like to review a previously

submitted Para Grid, click on its View icon:

Click on the

view icon to

review a

previously

submitted

Para Grid


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If you have been working on your next year’s Para Grid and it has been returned by DCS, you have two options:

(1) you can start a new grid that will not have any of the changes you made on your submitted grid or (2) you

can start from a previously submitted grid. If you want to start from a new grid, click on the blue plus icon in

the Start New Form box. If you want to start from a previously submitted grid, in the Start From Previous box,

click on the drop‐down arrow to select the version, then click the blue plus icon:

Next Year’s Grids

If you have been working on your current year’s Para Grid and it has been returned by DCS, you will only have

one option – to start a new grid. This is to assure that if any staffing or allocation changes have occurred at

your school since you last worked on your Para Grid, that when you start working on a Para Grid again, it will

reflect those staff and/or allocation changes:

Current Year’s Grids

Click here to

start a new grid

Click here to

pick previous

version

Then click here

to open that

previous version

Click here to

start a new grid


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Tips for using the Para Grid System The following items are tips on how to use various features of the Para Grid System.

How to see more of your Para Grid on your screen If the navigation bar is displayed on the left‐side of your screen, you can minimize it by clicking on the “line”

icon at the top left corner of your grid screen:

This is what you will see after minimizing the navigation bar:

Also, depending on what web browser you are using to view the Para Grid System, you can use the “zoom‐out”

feature to see more of your grid on your screen. For example, with Internet Explorer, you can change the

zoom level by clicking the drop‐down arrow at the bottom right corner of the browser window and selecting a

lower zoom percentage, such as 75%:

Click this line icon to

minimize the

navigation bar

Click the drop‐down

arrow to select a lower

zoom percentage


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How to export your grid to an Excel worksheet If you need to download your Para Grid to an Microsoft Excel worksheet, you can do that by using the Export

function that is available in two places on your grid screen: (1) the navigation bar or (2) the button icon at the

bottom right corner of your grid screen:

The exported Excel worksheet will not have the nice formatting of the grid on your screen, but it will permit

you to print out the information in the grid:

Can more than one person work on the Para Grid for a school? Yes, the Para Grid System does permit the principal and his/her approved delegates to work on a school’s Para

Grid. It is important to understand that the Para Grid System does not have a lock‐out feature, which means

that it is possible for two individuals to be working on a school’s Para Grid at the same time. It is not

recommended that two individuals work on the Para Grid at the same time because of the possibility that one

person’s grid changes will be over‐written by the other person’s grid changes.

Click here to

export your

grid to Excel…

…or click the

button icon and

then the Excel

icon


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Can I refresh my Para Grid if I want to discard my changes and start over again? Yes, if you are working on your Para Grid and would like to discard changes you have made and want to start

from a fresh grid, you can click on Refresh in the navigation bar on the left‐side of your screen:

User for Principals and Delegates€¦ · Paraeducator Staffing Grid link: A Brief Tour of the Para Grid System The first time you or your delegate accesses the Para Grid system,

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